Onus for Indo-Pak peace on Pakistan: White House

Lalit K Jha

Washington, June 9, 2019, 12:00 AMJune 8, 2019, 11:31 PM

UPDATED: June 8, 2019, 11:31 PM

File pic of White House

Amidst new peace overtures from the Imran Khan government after the re-election of Prime Minister NarendraModi, the White House has made it clear to Pakistan that the onus for sustained peace in South Asia was on it by putting the terror groups out of business.

Khan has written a second letter to Prime Minister Modi
after his re-election, saying that Pakistan wants talks with India to resolve
all differences, including on the Kashmir issue.

The Pakistani premier said talks between the two nations
were the only solution to help both countries’ people overcome poverty and that
it was important to work together for regional development.

However, India has rejected Pakistan’s offer of talks,
maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together and said that no bilateral
meeting has been planned between the two premiers on the sidelines of the
Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek on June 13
and 14.

“What the United States is really looking for in Pakistan
are arrests and prosecutions and not allowing these groups to operate and move
around freely, acquire weapons, cross into India, carry out attacks,” a senior
White House official told PTI this week.

The United States is looking for sustained and irreversible
steps that shut down their operations, asserted the official who spoke on
condition of anonymity.

“Until these groups are put out of business, it’s going to
be very difficult for India and Pakistan to achieve a sustained peace. So the
onus is on Pakistan to ensure that they crack down on these groups,” said the
White House official responding to a question on the US assessment of the
Indo-Pak tension.

A senior State Department official said that in the wake of
the Pulwama attack, the US has seen Pakistan taking some initial actions
against “designated terrorist organizations” and more steps to enhance counter
terrorism financing measures.

“We welcome those steps,” the official said.

“We have always agreed that the underlying causes of the
tensions between India and Pakistan needed to be addressed. So we certainly
encourage the creation of an environment that will lead to a dialogue,” the
official said.

Paris-based international terror financing watchdog FATF in June last year placed Pakistan onto its watch list in a bid to push the country to halt support for militant groups. In February, the FATF decided to continue the ‘Grey’ listing of Pakistan for its failure to stop funding of terrorist groups such as the JeM, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). PTI

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